


Little Feather

by Platypus4ever



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Character death (I don't know if it counts as major or minor character however), Father!Will, M/M, Manipulation, Mentions of Rape, Multi, Possessive Hannibal, Protective Will, Protective dogs, Small child endangered, dark!Will, mention of pedophilia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-07-19 02:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7341514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Platypus4ever/pseuds/Platypus4ever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannibal perfectly knew how Will was feeling; he loved his little sister Mischa as if she was his own daughter. But he lost Mischa…There is nothing worse than losing your child.</p><p>Will's fear of loosing his daughter was just perfect for what he wanted...</p><p> </p><p>Will has a four-year-old daughter who strongly reminds Hannibal of his little sister. Now the cannibal wants to have them both in his life, and have the perfect way to make Will evolve, knowing how a fatherly love can be destructive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my new story, I hope you'll enjoy it! I'm usually not into original characters, but the new whole dynamic a child brought in Will's life implied some new characters. Still Will/Hannibal anyway, so it doesn't matter much.

 

**Four years ago**

In the maternity leave of Baltimore Central Hospital, early in the morning, the atmosphere was calmer than usual. No birth for now just mothers and babies to take care about. The nurses and doctor had work but they still enjoyed those moments when things were less tensed. For one man in there however, this morning was one of the most stressful of his life.

Will Graham was following Miranda Lewis, a social worker, barely paying attention to what she was telling him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in her but he was just unable to listen because he was already having a hard time not to completely panic. He knew this was stupid, he was a grown man, he shouldn’t be scared like this but what was happening was just surreal to him. Only some days ago, the man had learned that he could be a father and today it had been confirmed. He had a baby.

It all began nine month ago, he had just been hired as a teacher at the FBI academy and he was really glad of it. So to celebrate, he actually accepted agents who he met at the academy to take him to a bar and have a drink. He wasn’t social usually but for once, he accepted. It was this very evening he meet Evelyn, a woman of his age who had obviously a thing for him. He was quite at ease with her; she didn’t seem bothered by his awkward behaviour.

They dated for maybe two weeks before he actually decided to break up. Though he liked her at first, he realised soon that Evelyn was a cold, self-centred and manipulative woman, she would act nice sometimes, but she really wasn’t in reality. He didn’t regret her much and stopped thinking about her, except when he learned she was in jail for murder. Evelyn killed her own mother. It was weird to know he had been dating a murderer. He didn’t hear of her again until eight month later, when he was told that Evelyn was pregnant, still in jail, and she was pointing him as the father of her child. They asked him to give a sample of his DNA to be sure he was the real father.

Today, it had been confirmed that the child was his indeed. Miranda called him and asked him to meet her at the hospital to see his child. He had asked why he hadn’t been warned sooner about all this, and Miranda explained that there had been a miscommunication problem, he should have been contacted earlier, that’s why when the baby was born, she had done her best to have the paternity test’s results as soon as possible. It was a way to apologize for not warning him sooner. She got those three days later, which was really good, Will knew that.

“So...You told me it’s a little girl?”

“Yes, she is just three days old.”

She addressed herself to a nurse who asked them to wait. They sat together in the corridor, Will completely silent.

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t know, it’s...It’s really weird.”

“I understand. I’m sorry; the person who should have contacted you really did a bad job.”

“Yeah! Indeed. How am I supposed to handle the situation? Am I supposed to take her home today?”

“Yes, normally.”

“But I don’t have anything for her! You didn’t confirm me whether or not I was the real father, so I waited before buying anything.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll have all the time you need today. You called your job didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I will stay with you and help you to prepare your home and if we are done soon enough, you’ll bring her back with you.”

As she just finished her sentence the nurse came back with a little bundle in her arms. Will felt his stomach tighten and he was pretty sure he turned pale. He stood up and looked at the baby who had her eyes half open. She was so small! The smiling nurse handed him the baby so he could take her in his arms and he felt a rush of fear again.

 _‘Don’t be that clumsy, or you’ll make her fall.’_ He thought immediately.

He carefully positioned his arms to hold her properly and the little girl moaned slightly. He kept his head down, looking at her and their eyes crossed. For a moment it seemed that time stopped. Things weren’t surreal anymore, reality hit him. He was a dad. This child here was _his_ child. He was a dad. This little thing was his daughter, his little girl. He wouldn’t make her fall, he wouldn’t let her get hurt. He felt a big wave of emotion swirling through him, so much it could have make him stumble. A smile appeared on his lips and he released a gasp, he had been holding his breath since she had been put in his arms. He was still scared because he didn’t know what the hell he had to do but the more he looked down at his baby, the more he loved her.

The baby moved her really tiny hand slightly and Will gently took it to feel the smallest pressure possible on his thumb. Once again he was struck at how small and fragile she was, those hands and those fingers were so frails! He wasn’t listening to what Miranda and the nurse were talking about; he could just hear the sound of their voices. All he was paying attention to was the contact of his daughter’s skin. His daughter...Though he was hardly listening, a phrase struck him.

“The mother refused to name her, for now she is just Jane Doe,” the nurse was explaining.

“Ellie.”

The two women looked at him as if they were surprised to hear him. He looked at them, careful not to cross their eyes as usual.

“Her name is Ellie.”

“Ellie Graham. Fine, you’ll have to give that name to the office, so they can register it.”

He just nodded, watched his daughter again and spoke to her for the first time.

“Hey Ellie...That’s your name now.”

It was the name of a childhood friend he never forgot. Yes, it would fit. He never thought he would be a father one day but this was happening. Miranda looked at the child and smiled, she was glad Graham was reacting like this, the way he gave her a name showed he intended to keep her.

“She is pretty. We will have to fill some papers; you’re now her only tutor.”

“Why did her mother refuse to name her?”

“She didn’t want that child; She realised she was pregnant only in jail. She asked for an abortion but she was denied it, the baby was too developed. She didn’t show any maternal feelings. That’s why I’m glad you seem to like her.”

“Of course I do...I do.”

They stayed like this for a little moment and then, Ellie was brought back to the nursery so she could rest while Will and Miranda took care of her registration so she would be named Ellie Graham and not Jane Doe anymore. Then they left hospital and went to buy what the little girl would need. Graham was definitely glad Miranda was around, though he had read about babies when he had been told he could be a father, he was still feeling lost when he had to shop for her stuff and prepare his home.

The evening, the house was ready. Will went to pick up Ellie at hospital to bring her back home. He knew his life would be a mess from now on, but it didn’t matter. He would handle it. When he entered the new home, his three dogs went to greet him, but didn’t jump on him as usual. Instead, they sniffed carefully the newcomer. Will noticed immediately how gentle they were, careful to keep their distance and not make too much noise.

“Guys, this is Ellie. Your new protégé. I hope you’ll help me watch over her.”

He put her in the cradle he bought today and looked at her, the dogs followed and once again, it struck Will to see how his usually playful and carefree pets were now so serious. They understood that there was now a cub in this house, their master’s cub, it made them curious and protective. Will knew then that even if he would have to be careful with the way he would handle his dogs around his daughter, they wouldn’t be a real problem.

Thinking of his situation, he remembered that he had been really upset over the fact he couldn’t be a FBI agent but now, it was for the best. His job as a teacher would be much more stable to take care of his child. A stable job wasn’t only what he needed sadly. He knew that his instability would be a problem. Yet some people like him did succeed to raise a child. But did that mean he would be able to do it? She had no mother, just like him as a kid. It wasn’t a good start.

Looking at his daughter’s small frame again, he felt a new strength in him and swore he wouldn’t let his problems hurt her. He would do his best to remain as stable as he could; he would go to a shrink if necessary to be sure everything is fine. Maybe Alana Bloom could help? He didn’t know her since long, but unlike a lot of doctors, he liked her. His daughter didn’t have a mum, but she wouldn’t grow poor and constantly travelling from town to town. Leaning toward her, he whispered very gently:

“You’ll be okay, little girl. I’m here, and I’ll take care of you.”

He was a dad, a father. Unlike his own, he wouldn’t neglect his duty. He would be strong for his daughter. He swore it before her cradle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! This chapter is longer, I hope you'll enjoy it, it happens four years after the prologue, and we will se how Will is doing as a dad. Enjoy!

**Today**

Desperate times calls for desperate measures. If someone was desperate lately, it was definitely Jack Crawford. Investigating on murders and serial killers was never really easy of course; it would always cost time, energy and be sometimes really exhausting on a mental and emotional level. Yet some cases were harder than others.

A new serial killer was now kicking around, he took eight girls and they still had no lead, no corpses and no real profile. That was the reason why he decided to contact Will Graham, a profiler and teacher. He knew Graham was damn efficient but also unstable and he refused to work on criminal cases since some years now. Yet he had to try and convince him to be a consultant for him, because another girl just disappeared and he didn’t want another one to meet the same fate.

When he entered the classroom in which Graham was working, the students were leaving already and their teacher was starting to pick up his stuff.

“Mr Graham?”

“Yes?”

“Agent Jack Crawford, ahead of the Behavioural Analysis Unit.”

“I know who you are.”

It took a few line exchanged between them to convince Jack that Graham wouldn’t be really easy to handle. Not the most difficult person he ever worked with, but to be handled carefully. All the while Will avoided crossing his eyes and Jack didn’t really like that, he was someone direct and he liked people to be the same. He had heard of Will’s awkward behaviour and when he saw his glasses slipping away from his nose it just made him want to tease him a little, to stop him from turning his head away.

“May I?”

When he readjusted the glasses he could feel Graham tense like crazy and decided not to push that further. If he could hire him, the profiler would definitely have to work on his social skills a little more.

“Can I ask you what kind of troubles you have precisely?”

Will didn’t really feel friendly toward the man and a part of him wished to end this conversation, he found Jack’s behaviour pretty annoying, he didn’t like the way he touched his glasses. He made efforts to be social since he had his daughter, yes, but that didn’t mean he wished someone to be intrusive like that. Plus work was a place where he allowed himself to be lonely, it was around his neighbours that he was trying to be friendlier and it wasn’t always easy. So having someone intrusive at work was definitely not pleasing him. Yet, Crawford also piqued his curiosity and he couldn’t resist.

“I’m close to Aspengers and narcissist.”

“And as I know you are able to empathize with criminals?”

“I can empathize with everyone, it’s not a personality trouble, it’s just that I have a wild imagination.”

 “Can I borrow your imagination?”

 “Do you want to offer me a job or do you simply want me to give you advices on a case?”

“Recently we had some disappearances. Eight girls from different campus. I would like you to tell me what you think about it.”

They walked away from the classroom while Jack was telling him pretty much everything they knew about this case. Will had heard about it but vaguely only. When he was in Jack’s office and looked at the girls he felt sad for them and he couldn’t help but think of what the parents were going through. If it was his own daughter...He shook away that thought and told Jack why those girls were interesting to the killer. He came quickly to the conclusion that only one girl mattered and all the others were just a way to hide his golden ticket.

“I want you to work on that,” Jack said.

So that was it. A part of him wished to accept, criminal minds always fascinated him a lot, he could still explore it by giving his classes but in a safer and less exciting way. It wasn’t the same as projecting yourself in the mind of a killer who was on the run. He also wanted to help people around him. He knew that teaching future agents was an important job but a part of him also wished to help, to save people directly. The thing was he had to think of his daughter before anything. She was four years old now, and he had done his best to give her a happy and balanced life. He didn’t want to throw all that away.

“I can’t accept.”

“Your skills are unique, I need those.”

 “You know I’m unstable.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, if something goes wrong, I’ll take you out. You said it yourself, your imagination isn’t a trouble.”

“And I’m a single father, Jack.”

That actually managed to surprise Crawford. He had heard of Will being unstable, but he didn’t know he had a kid. To be honest, he wouldn’t have imagined this guy being a dad. Will continued:

“I have to raise my daughter alone; I won’t have time for that.”

He walked away to show that there would be no more talking but Crawford followed him. He was a hard-headed man and in general he obtained what he wanted.

“Then you should understand as a father why it’s important to find that man.”

“Oh don’t play that card with me. You have people who can do that as well as me.”

“No, none of them has your capacity; you make conclusions no one can do.”

He took Graham’s arm to stop him.

“Look if it’s really not possible for you, you’ll resign; you’ll simply be a consultant on this case. The pay isn’t bad at all and you will still have time for your kid.”

Without knowing it, Jack just gave the good argument to make Graham accept. Little Ellie had a problem with her eyes: amblyopia. One of her eye wasn’t working well and with time it could affect her other eyes and eventually make her blind if it wasn’t well-treated. Though it had been discovered very soon and therefore would more likely heal, her treatment wasn’t cheap, it would take years to be properly treated and Will was often worrying about money. Another job would definitely help. Yet this meant he would spend less time with her. On the other hand, his neighbours often accepted to babysit her.

The Tanners were a nice couple, they had two kids themselves and Ellie became close to them. She would spend less time with him but she would be in a home with other children with people he had come to trust and like. The Tanners were two of the few people he could call friends. They would probably not ask him much money to keep their daughter while he was away and he knew they would take care of her well. Will didn’t find any woman to share his life with, he had some girlfriends but nothing serious. He had been told once that he shouldn’t be too demanding and simply got a nice wife who would be a good mother for Ellie, yet as much as he loved his daughter, he just couldn’t just have a woman he didn’t love in his home. So whenever he would give her to the Tanners, he could at least comfort himself by thinking he was giving her a model of a normal and stable family. Something he never got.

“I guess I can give it a try. I need you to give me time so I can pick up my daughter at school and arrange her to stay with someone.”

Jack was satisfied at this. He knew he would have to be careful; he would talk to Alana Bloom about it. He let Will leave to find someone for his daughter.

 

**O o O**

When Graham called Sarah Tanner, she accepted immediately. Now all he had to do was to pick up his daughter at the kindergarten and prepare her stuff while she would stay with her neighbours. He found Sarah here, their kids were going to the same school, she smiled when she saw him, a sincere smile.

“Hi Will! So what’s happening that you have to leave for some times?”

“I had to accept another job as a consultant on a criminal investigation.”

He explained her briefly while they waited for the kids to go out of school. It was in those moments he realised how much his life changed. After he got Ellie, he had decided to sell his isolated farm and took a house in town. He hated the fact he would have to be social but he wanted to make efforts for his daughter, living far away from everyone wouldn’t be good for her, he didn’t want her to suffer from the same loneliness he felt as a kid. Since she didn’t have a mother, he at least wanted her to have friends around her and familiar faces, a stable environment. That’s why he went to a nice street and in spite of his unsocial behaviour he became friend with Ed and Sarah Tanner who lived next door. They were nice and tolerant people and he was always thankful toward Sarah for her maternal behaviour toward Ellie whenever she was around. She was the only maternal figure she knew.

“Are you sure you need that money? Ellie needs you more than this.”

“Sadly, yes. Her treatment is expensive and I have to stay afloat. Believe me, it’s not just about making more money for the simple good of it, I really need it.”

“I see. Well, Stacy and Max will love to have her around, Stacy in particular I guess, she’ll have another girl to play with,” she concluded, understanding. “I hope she’ll just avoid speaking Russian again, none of us understand when she does.”

Will smiled, indeed, Ellie could do this at times and it was somehow his fault. Will’s father was Russian, and he taught his son to speak Russian since he was a kid, while teaching him English as well. Now, Will was doing the same with Ellie, because he knew that teaching a child a second language early would give them more skills in learning others tongues in the future and because he wanted to share that with her.

“Is Ed alright with this?”

“Oh, that won’t bother him at all, I’m sure of it. But he’ll probably ask you to have a beer with him nonetheless because you’ll ‘owe him that’.”

Graham huffed as well as her. Ed was often finding excuses like this to come to Will’s garden and have a beer with him so they could talk, or invite Will in his garden. Not that he really needed excuses; it was only to ease things up at first, when Will was still feeling awkward while socializing. If Will had refused or showed himself reluctant, it wouldn’t have got far, but he never did. Today it was more a ritual than anything. Ed and Sarah were some of the rare people he felt comfortable with and didn’t have to force himself to be social with.

“I will definitely acknowledge that request; if you want to join us you know you’re always welcome.”

“I know I am and I always like to hang around with you two. But sometimes we need time with our friends alone. Most people think it’s a proof a couple is having a crisis or something, you know some people asked me if Ed and I were starting to break up! We aren’t, in fact spending some time alone make us appreciate the presence of the other even more when we are together.”

“A lot of people, especially among our neighbours, should take some of your advices instead of gossiping,” Will affirmed.

She smiled to him at this, because she knew that Will meant it. If there was something she appreciated with Graham it was definitely his honesty and his insightful mind. He knew what he was talking about and he would spoke sincerely. That’s why she didn’t care if he was unstable or any other crap like that, she still liked him and he was a good father, doing everything to make his daughter happy and succeeding at it. It was the most important to her.

“By the way, you still see this doctor Bloom?” She asked maliciously.

“Oh we never dated actually and I don’t think it would work. Not that I didn’t wish it but we aren’t made to be with each other I think.”

Sarah leaned a little toward him and whispered discretely:

“Well, if you actually paid attention you would see you definitely have chances to have an indecent relationship with Mrs Bells, she is eying you like you were dessert.”

“She is married.”

“Yes, that’s why I said ‘indecent’.”

He laughed out and from the corner of his eyes he saw Cynthia Bells, also here for her son looking at him with something he couldn’t mistake. He wondered how the hell he didn’t notice that!

“Sarah, you’re being so immoral,” he said teasingly.

“I never pretended to be perfect; I’m a flawed human being.”

They laughed again, Will liked her for this humour she had, she was pretty much the woman next door on many aspects but unlike a lot of people she wasn’t pretentious about being a good and very moral person. She acknowledged her flaws and faults, just like her husband.

The kids went out of school and he saw his daughter coming toward him, Max and Stacy at her side going to their mother.

“Hi!” The children chanted together.

He took her in arms and she kissed his cheek. She was grinning hugely and watching her like that, he pondered for a second of how prideful he felt at the resemblance they had. She had his curly dark hair, she had his blue eyes behind her glasses, she even had the same smile and when he wore his glasses it was even more striking that they were father and daughter.

 “Daddy, we learned a new song. Wanna hear us sing?”

“I didn’t learn it,” Stacy explained to Will, “it was only the smaller kids. But we learned another one.”

She was a year older than her brother and she was one grade above them. Max and Ellie however were both four.

“Yes but Max and I can sing it to you.”

“You’ll sing it to me in the car. Sweetie, listen to me well.”

“What?”

“Dad will have to go away this evening, I’ll come back soon but in the meantime you’ll stay with...”

“No! I want you to stay!”

“Listen to me, you’ll stay with the Tanners. Isn’t it good? You’ll play with Max and Stacy all the evening.”

Upon hearing this, her friends happily babbled about spending the night together, which seemed to make her a little less reluctant.

“After you come back?”

“Not this night but in some days.”

“I want you to stay!”

Will hated it when he was making her sad, and he could feel that right now, it wasn’t some kind of tantrum or petty whims. She really wanted him to stay because he hardly left her until now, every times he asked the Tanners to babysit her it was hardly for more than some hours. She was scared to see him leave.

“I have to go for work, aren’t you happy to spend the night with Stacy and Max?”

“Yeah but why you can’t stay with us all?”

“I can’t, I have to leave. Don’t worry, I’ll come back soon.”

She was still pouting when he put her in the car. He knew she was having a hard time understanding, in her little mind her daddy was being mean because he should have stayed with her and the Tanner. The notion of money and work was still a little blurry in her head. When they went back home to pack up her things, she was a little less moody. He fixed the dogs’ food and water, they had enough for two days at least, he would gave Sarah the spare key to his home so in case he would stay away longer, she or Ed could feed them. He had four dogs now, he knew he couldn’t adopt any others now, yet he didn’t regret having them around. When Ellie went to the Tanner’s and saw Sarah would do waffles, she was happy. Her father kissed her goodbye and left her under his neighbours care. He hoped it was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, I'll try to update soon. About Will and Ellie speaking Russian, I know it can seems weird, but it will have its use somehow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! As you'll probably understand, italics will be used for flashbacks and for dialogs in Russian. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, I really like it.

Thankfully, Will’s trip wasn’t long at all. They quickly found Elise Nichols dead in her bed, to their surprise, the killer brought her back. That’s why they didn’t remain in Minnesota.

He had met his new co-workers; he could tell they thought he was weird, maybe because he didn’t do much effort to hide how troubled he felt. Not only it was disturbing to get into this killer’s mind but it had been also hard to see the parents’ pain. For a moment, he visualized his own little girl instead of Elise, and it terrified him. He knew it wouldn’t happen, this killer was targeting young women, not toddlers, yet he couldn’t help it.  His co-workers could think whatever they wanted, as long as they didn’t stop him from working, he didn’t mind.

He was back the next evening, much to Ellie’s joy. When he picked up at the Tanner’s house, the three children asked many questions, they were old enough to understand Will’s job was to catch bad guys and it would always make them curious.

“Who is the bad guy you caught?” Max asked

“Did you have to use your gun?” Ellie and Stacy asked together.

“We didn’t catch him already, but we will. We still don’t know who it is.”

“What did he do?”

“It’s not stories kids should hear.”

They were always disappointed when they would hear this, but he wouldn’t give them any other answer. They insisted and Sarah clapped in her hands to catch their attention.

“If Will tells you it’s not for kids, then you shouldn’t hear it.”

“Can we go to your house and see the dogs?” Max pleaded.

The boy loved the dogs, but Sarah forbad it for tonight, Will told them that when their parents would have time, then they would go out for a walk with the dogs with him and Ellie. After giving some money to Sarah, he took her back home. He was carrying her in his arms, she started to speak in Russian instead of English, and explained how they had waffles and how she and Max argued.

_“He was telling I couldn’t play with his castle, because it’s a boy castle, but me, I said that he was mean because we had to toy together, and he said that he didn’t want to toy with girls.”_

_“Yet you usually play together.”_

_“Yes but he was mean. So me and Stacy, we didn’t speak to him and after he said sorry.”_

He smiled, she was cute. They crossed the street and encountered one of their neighbours, Craig Warren and when he saw him, Will shot him a deadly look and his hold on Ellie slightly tightened. Craig lowered his eyes and went away without a word. The little girl put her arms around her dad’s neck. Craig was quite the bogeyman for the children around, he was a very strange man, and though Will knew he shouldn’t judge anyone based on that, this one was really particular. Craig Warren had a deep hatred toward women, even toward little girls.

Once, Craig had threatened Ellie and Stacy because they were playing near his garden, he even caught Ellie by the arm hard and shook her while yelling. When he had seen that, Will had lunged at him, freed his daughter, caught Craig by the throat, without strangling him, pinned him against a tree and told him clearly that he should never approach his daughter again. Since then, the man was afraid of Will. If Craig wasn’t hated among the neighbourhood, it could have played against Graham, but most people agreed that even if he had been rough, Craig deserved it. Sometimes, Graham thought that if he was tolerated among the neighbourhood in spite of his unsocial behaviour, it was because people would compare him to Craig who was way more fucked up.

He followed the man with his eyes for a short moment, and Ellie told him she really didn’t like that man. He caressed her back to reassure her.

As he opened the door the dog greeted them gleefully, Ellie went to Winston first. Of all the dogs, he was her favourite, even if she loved all of them. Since she was a baby, Will had been very careful to teach her to respect animals; he had taught her to caress them without pulling on their hair, to have gentle gestures and not to scream too much around them. The dogs had always been patient with her anyway, she was often being clumsy or a little too rough even if she didn’t mean to, but now she was starting to control herself more and more and she interacted well with the dogs. She was really fond of them and was often watching them with some kind of fascination, she was already aware they were living being and not just big toys and Will was proud of that.

She was caressing Winston’s head very gently and kissed it also while the dog was licking her little face. Most parents wouldn’t have liked it, but Will knew that having animals around was good for children.

“ _I missed you_ ,” she said to the pets while starting to caress another.

“ _I hope you missed Daddy too_.”

“ _No!_ ”

She had a huge smile while saying this; Will knew perfectly it was just a childish way to tease him so he faked to be shocked.

“ _No?! You didn’t miss me at all?_ ”

“ _I didn’t!”_

“ _Oh, I’m terribly sad! I missed you a lot, and you didn’t! I’m so sad right now.”_

She laughed out at this.

“ _Kidding daddy! I missed you! You stay?_ ”

“ _Ah that’s much better! Well I’ll stay this evening, but you might spend more time with your friends, I will have a lot of work_.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“ _I explained you already sweetie, for money, I don’t want to do it, but I have to. We need money to keep the house, the dogs and everything else._ ”

“ _But you can’t find money at home?_ ”

“ _No, sweetie, I fear it’s not possible._ ”

Actually Jack accepted him to let him study files at home so he wouldn’t have to spend so much time in the office. But that was too complicated to explain.

He gave her eye drops and patched her good eye. Amblyopia was a disease that affected one eye, making it work less than the other. In order to force it to work, it was required to patch her good eye every day for two or three hours. When he wasn’t here, Sarah would do it, but otherwise he would like to do it himself. After that he spent some privileged time with her this evening, playing and reading her a story. It was good to just take care of this innocent little one who still ignored what kind of horrors her father was seeing at work. It was only when she was sleeping that he worked on his next classes.

This night he had a terrible nightmare. First he would see Elise Nichols at his side in the bed; floating and he couldn’t reach her. Then he saw Ellie crying and running away from something, a big creature black as a shadow. He was trying to catch up to her, trying to catch the creature and stop it, but he could do none of that, he was too slow. When he woke up, he was sweating and couldn’t help but felt the need to check if Ellie was fine. She was sleeping in her bed peacefully, Winston lying on the floor next to her.

 

**O o O**

The next days were pretty exhausting for Will, physically and mentally. He would still give his classes, when he was home he had to take care of his daughter, the dogs and the house chores, and now in addition to that he had to work on the case which took a lot of time and energy. There were evenings when he just wanted to sit and relax but he couldn’t, the dogs or Ellie were asking for his attention, and when they weren’t he had to the chores, he couldn’t neglect his home because he couldn’t let himself, his kid and his pets live in a dirty home. Then, when it was all done, when Ellie and the dogs were sleeping and he had taken care of his house, then it was his next classes he had to work on. Before, he would do that during the day, when he was in his office, but working on the case didn’t allow him that.

Almost every day he had to ask Sarah to pick up his daughter at school and babysit her at least for two or three hours before he came back. Each time he told Ellie he had to leave, she would cry or pout and it wasn’t easy to be patient, and it was hurting him as much as her. He was missing spending time with her. The nightmares weren’t easing things up either, even in sleep he was hardly resting. Yet he knew he had to continue. He couldn’t go back, not only because he needed that job but because he felt that it was now his responsibility to catch that killer and save people.

Yes, it was all taking its toll on him; it was maybe the reason why he almost lost it when he met Hannibal Lecter.

Jack introduced Hannibal as a psychologist recommended by Alana Bloom to work on the case with them. Graham surely had no problem with that until the man started to analyze him. It just started with a simple question on eye contact and then the doctor began to read him like there was nothing simpler in the world. He had been in contact with many shrinks who tried to dissect his mind as if he was nothing but an object of curiosity and each time he hated that. That’s why he left the room immediately.

He was angry at Jack for bringing someone to psychoanalyze him, especially without telling him in the first place. This was giving him the impression to be some kind of little animal they were trying to trap. He ignored he would soon be closer to Hannibal, when they would finally find their killer, Garrett Jacob Hobbs.

They had been together when the bloodbath started at the Hobbs’s house, Will shoot him to save his daughter Abigail, something he never did before. When she was on the floor, her throat partially open he was horribly scared, she was going to die! Thank God Lecter knew better than him what to do. In the end they managed to keep her alive until the ambulance came. Yet Graham had been definitely disturbed by everything that just happened. Hobbs...He had to kill him. It was the first time he took a life. And seeing the man threaten his own daughter like this...He knew why Hobbs did that, it was probably the worst part and even though he knew he would never think of doing that himself, it was horrible to understand such kind of fathers.

He visited Abigail and saw Lecter sleeping in a chair beside her bed, she was in an artificial comatose. Though he wished so, he knew he couldn’t stay for long, he would have to go back home to his own child but he was grateful toward Hannibal for staying at her side.

Sitting in another chair, he looked at the girl and started to feel protective toward Abigail. After all he and Lecter saved her life, he had killed someone for her. It wasn’t something he could brush away; she wasn’t someone he could ignore. Hannibal woke up after some minutes and gave a weary smile to Will.

“You stayed here for long?” Will asked

“Since she was brought here. I didn’t want her to be alone, even if she is in a comate for now. Are you alright?”

“I don’t know...I killed a man. Sure it was necessary but I killed a man nonetheless, it never happened before.”

“Now this girl is under your protection. She might need you, she might need us.”

 “I have my own daughter to take care about. Not that I don’t want to help that girl, but I can’t neglect my own.”

“Of course. I didn’t know you had a child. What’s her name?”

“Ellie. She is four years old.”

Hannibal nodded, wondering how Will was feeling now that he had been confronted to the sight of a father trying to kill his own daughter. Probably disturbed and scared. He would have to ask him about this, but not now. Graham left soon anyway, but Hannibal knew that he would come back, maybe tomorrow.

The days which followed were calmer, he still worked on Hobbs’s case but the man wasn’t a threat anymore and he continued to give his classes. Sometimes he would visit quickly Abigail but would never stay long. He was way less hostile toward Hannibal, they met around Abigail’s bed and spoke quietly together, and Will decided that even if he had a bad impression of Lecter at first, the man was far from being that bad, and maybe he misjudged him. 

This went on until one morning when Jack and Alana announced something terrible to Will: Abigail Hobbs didn’t survive. A nurse made an error in the doses of a medicine and this ended killing the young girl.

This new made Will’s face crumble when he heard it and he felt something in him die slightly. He had felt protective and responsible toward this girl; he truly believed he succeeded to save her. But she was dead. He failed. Jack perfectly saw how it touched Will and that’s why he insisted on the need for a therapy with Lecter or Bloom. The idea didn’t please him at all, but he had to comply. Though he liked Bloom, Will decided to go and see Hannibal, he knew the woman didn’t want to be his shrink, and he didn’t want it either, he’d rather keep her as a friend. Plus there was something that linked those two men and it was Abigail Hobbs, they were both here, they both visited her dutifully, Hannibal even more than him.

“Does it touch you too?” Asked Will when they started their session.

“I was here, I stopped her from bleeding. I felt responsible for her, really. I hoped I would be able to talk with her once she would wake up.”

Graham nodded, he was feeling pretty much the same.

“You also felt responsible too,” Hannibal said.

“We saved her life...Yet I have the impression that I failed her.”

“Why exactly?”

“Once at hospital you said she needed us, yet I wasn’t here as much as you and I know I couldn’t because of Ellie, yet I have the feeling I should have done more, I have the feeling I could have stopped her death.”

“She died because of a medical error. You couldn’t do anything about it.”

“What about you? Don’t you feel the same?”

“I have medical knowledge. The thing is I have the feeling I should have seen that something was wrong with what they were giving her.”

Hearing this, Will felt slightly guilty, he was being edgy because he was facing a shrink, yet he couldn’t forget Lecter was also a man, and he had been obviously hurt by what happened.

“You couldn’t check what they were giving her,” he said. “It seems that we both feel like we could have done something, though it’s irrational.”

“After saving her life, it’s normal to feel this way. You in particular. You made her an orphan to save her life, this implies a lot of moral responsibilities. Does it also touch you because of your own daughter?”

“What does she has to do with this?”

“You’re a father. You were starting to feel paternal toward Abigail even though you couldn’t stay around much, you visited her at hospital. But in the end, she didn’t make it. Does that make you question your abilities as a father?”

A silence followed, Will wasn’t sure what to answer. Hannibal wasn’t wrong, he was indeed feeling bad since this all began and now that Abigail was dead he was feeling less sure of himself.

“I’m able to raise my daughter, she wasn’t here.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you’re unable to raise her. But it’s normal and sane for any parent to question themselves, especially after such events.”

The nightmare he made some days ago came back in Will’s memory, and though he didn’t like to talk about it, he also promised himself that whenever he would start to feel unstable, he would go to a shrink. He had avoided that until now, but he was starting to feel unbalanced again, and he had to fix that.

“After we found Elise Nichols I got a nightmare. Ellie was running away from a threat and I was trying to help, to catch whatever was pursuing her, or at least caught her in my arms and protect her, but I couldn’t. She was getting far away, still crying and screaming and I couldn’t do anything.”

“You had the sensation that it was your responsibility to stop Hobbs and not succeeding was frustrating. Even there, not being able to save his victims was questioning your ability to protect your daughter. Now that Abigail is dead, this feeling might be even more intense. Seeing Hoobs trying to kill her was also probably disturbing.”

“The thing is...I know why he was doing it. He feared to lose her, it wasn’t out of hatred, he loved her. I can understand that feeling, being afraid of losing your child. And that’s the scariest.”

“It’s not abnormal for you to fear that. Now you have to remember that in contrary to Hobbs, you’d rather see your daughter leave rather than see her dead.”

It was true and when he heard this, he started to feel that after all, sessions with Hannibal wouldn’t be that bad, maybe he finally found a shrink who could work with him.

“Tell me Will, why did you accept that job?”

“Well, we diagnosed my daughter amblyopia. It was noticed early and it had good chances to heal, but her treatment is expensive. So I decided to accept that job. If those sessions weren’t prescribed by the FBI, I wouldn’t be here, I can’t offer myself a therapy.”

“Even if you weren’t my patient, you could still come here to speak from time to time.”

He nodded thoughtfully, that was good to know. At the end of their session, it was decided. Will would return and see Lecter, Jack would be glad and it would secure his job and his daily life. Yes, it was for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it, more moments between Hannibal and Will to come, also Hannibal should meet Ellie soon. I'm not telling how that encounter will go, but I'm eager to finish the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Here is my new chapter, I hope you'll like it!

Days and then weeks had passed since Will started working for Jack and he was starting to adjust to the situation quite well. He was still having nightmare, he was still tired, but he was taking his marks. They had another case, a man had been growing humans into mushrooms, and though it had been highly disturbing, it had been solved quite quickly. However they still had to work on Garrett Jacob Hobbs, some points still needed to be enlightened.

His sessions with Hannibal Lecter were also helpful. He really needed to talk, not only he was still feeling bad over Abigail’s death but a reporter, Freddie Lounds, wrote some stupid things about him. They didn’t even met, but she wrote a paper about him based on rumours she heard and he hated that because he feared that one day Ellie could read this shit. He also feared at first it would have consequences with his neighbours, but actually things didn’t change much, he soon discovered he owed that mostly to Ed Tanner.

Ed was a reporter himself, he worked as a political journalist for the _Baltimore Sun_ and as soon as Freddie wrote her crap, he told pretty much everyone in the neighbourhood that this woman was a pariah among journalists because she was twisting the truth most of times, that every serious newspaper in which she asked for a job refused her and that she got already sued six times because of her blog and never won any trial, she had to find arrangements. Thanks to that, the worst was avoided. Most of people around concluded that Graham was sure weird but Lounds probably over-exaggerated what she wrote. In fact some neighbours came to him to tell him that they were really sorry for him.

Will was more thankful than ever toward Ed, that’s why he invited the Tanner family for a dinner at his home. Though it wasn’t the first time they came around, Ellie was beaming to have them here, and she was in admiration before Sarah who had her chestnut hair put in a graceful bun. Will knew that in her head, Sarah was probably like some beautiful princess in addition to a great mommy, and even if she wasn’t the most attractive woman he ever met, Will thought she was pretty with her grey eyes and that dancing smile often on her lips. They had a good time together, the kids playing with the dogs a lot, giving the adults some space to talk together.

“I really wanted to thank you two, I know it’s thanks to you I’m not the freak of the town.”

“You know, it was really nothing, I hate reporters like her anyway,” Ed said, passing a hand in his short blond hair. “She spoils the reputation of good journalists, people see us like vultures because of them.”

“Try to tell her that. The worse is for Ellie, I don’t want people to shun her away because of that.”

“Don’t worry, when Ed told them about her, they were outraged. I couldn’t speak as much as him, I don’t know Lounds, but I told them Ellie was a healthy and happy little girl and it meant you weren’t as bad as she said,” Sarah explained.

“Thanks. I know I already ask a lot…”

“Will, don’t worry, we are fine. And it’s thanks to this babysitting I could buy myself a new pair of shoes,” she said, proudly showing her new boots, earning a laugh from the two men.

“Yeah, and it’s not as if she was difficult,” Ed added. “I must say we are lucky to have nice kids. We raise them well, but sometimes even with a good education some children can be really exhausting.”

“Oh that’s for sure,” Will said thoughtfully, “one of the teachers at university have a hyperactive son, he and his wife are really having a hard time raising him.”

“No wonder.”

They continued to talk like that until it was late for the children. Before parting, Ed warned him that the family would soon have to go and visit the kids’ grandparents, so they wouldn’t be here to babysit Ellie for some times. Will told him it was okay, he would find someone else, he thought of Alana Bloom, maybe she would be able to help from time to time. When he put Ellie in her bed, he wished he had spent more time with her this evening, but he owed the Tanners some friendly time for saving his reputation.

 

**O o O**

This demonstration of friendship from Ed and Sarah actually made him feel better, he was feeling less alone. However his mood declined the next day, when he was called by Jack on a case. He brought Ellie to school before and when he saw their new crime scene his first urge was to rush to her again.

A family had been attacked: the mother and the father had been murdered as well as the children, two little girls. When Will saw the little corpses he felt horrified. They were hardly older than Ellie and Stacy, they both had dark hairs. They were lying in their beds, their pyjamas still on, as if they were still sleeping.

“The Connors were respected members of their community, they were married since eight years now, they had two kids, they were quite wealthy,” Jack was summing up to everyone. “It’s a neighbour who called; she had to bring back their lawnmower and she noticed some blood on the front door. What can you tell us about the kids?”

“They died by strangulation,” Beverly said. “There also traces of ropes, their wrists had been tied, and the corners of their mouths are irritated, they had been gagged. We have to see if there aren’t traces of torture or sexual assault.”

“The parents on the other hand had been butchered, the way of killing is completely different,” Zeller remarked. “The father was stabbed multiple times in the stomach and the mother mostly in the back.”

Will left the room and went to see the parents’ corpses. Zeller was right; they had been butchered, massacred. It was screaming rage. He closed his eyes and thought.

_I enter without a noise, I go to the children first, they don’t hear me. I put a hand on the elder’s sister mouth and gag her before tying her, I threaten her to kill her and her sister so she’ll shut up. I do the same with the younger one; she didn’t even wake up when I attacked her sister. Then I leave them here, still alive and unharmed, and go to the parents. I was controlled with the girls but now, I let my rage flow freely. They are still in their bed. I stab the father first, to stop him from defending his wife. I stab him several times, by the time he realise what’s happening, he is dying already. I don’t end his suffering now._

_I catch Mrs Connors as she just woke up and I stab her too, first in the stomach, then I throw her on the floor, I make her fall one her belly to attack her back. But I’m careful; I don’t want her to die now. I want her to feel the pain and see what I will do to her husband. I want to damage her spine. Then I return to Mr Connors who tried to get up and crawl. I stab him again, I’m in a rage, and when he is dead, I finally end up the mother’s life. Finally I calm down and I go to the girls’ room. They are what I really want. This is my design._

Will stopped there, did everything he could to block is imagination. That man was probably a pedophile, he would have to wait for the autopsy’s results but he was pretty sure of it and he couldn’t imagine that. For a moment, he reflected over the fact this family was quite similar to the Tanners’ one. A nice couple, two kids…Jack entered the room and looked at him expectantly.

 “He is angry at the parents, they remind him of some people he knew already. But the girls were his targets. It’s a child rapist,” Will said in a ghostly voice.

Jack nodded and sighed. He hated that, when children where involved, it was always ugly but when it was done by a child rapist, it was maybe the worst thing in the world for him. He also realised this was probably very hard for Will; after all he had a kid too.

“You have classes today?”

“I have one this afternoon.”

“Okay, once it’s done, go directly home to your daughter; you’ll continue your work tomorrow.”

Graham felt thankful for that, it would allow him to pick up Ellie at school. He continued to inspect the house, saying almost nothing. When he sighted the girls’ corpses being taken away, an image crossed his mind: Ellie and Stacy dead on a stretcher after being tied, raped and killed. It was so horrible, so hideous and unbearable he almost felt like vomiting. He left the crime scene then, not caring what people could say. He had a hard time focusing on his class today but he did his best, he had to be at his best, he needed his job too much. When Will finally left and went to the school to pick up his child, he didn’t see Sarah Tanner, she had left with her husband today to visit their family. Somehow he was happy they were away, he felt like they were safe this way. Ellie was happy to see her dad; he knew she missed him. 

He took her in his arms and gave her a tight hug, remembering the dead little girls and Abigail; he was relieved to see her in good health. He silently promised himself she wouldn’t be hurt. She babbled about what she learned at school, they went home and after preparing her a snack, the two of them went in the woods close by to take the dogs for a walk. It wasn’t really cold this evening. She was walking and running with the dogs, he was reminding her to be careful not to fall. He liked to take her in the woods. Garrett Jacob Hobbs enjoyed taking Abigail to the woods too.

This thought almost froze him on place. No, he had to stop that, he wasn’t Hobbs, he wasn’t! Ellie wasn’t Abigail, he wasn’t Hobbs, he wouldn’t hurt her. He watched her as she was running with the dogs, and was almost sad. She was so carefree and innocent. One day her innocence would be taken away from her...Maybe someone like this rapist and killer would take her away. No! No, he would never allow that!

“Daddy?”

He looked down at Ellie who stopped playing and looked at him with a concerned face.

“Why are you sad?”

“I’m...I’m not sad sweetie.”

“You look sad.”

“No, I was just thinking of something.”

“What?”

“Things which are not for children, but I’m not sad at all.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie, he was sad but he was mostly scared and worried. He would have another session soon with Hannibal; it wouldn’t be bad, because he needed to talk. For now however he would have to find someone to watch over Ellie with the Tanners gone. He didn’t trust professional babysitter; he had heard stories that were chilling. He would call Alana, if he was lucky enough, she would have time.

 

**O o O**

The next day, Alana Bloom found herself with two guests at home: first Graham called, saying he needed someone to watch over Ellie and she accepted him to bring her from school and watch over her while he would work with Jack on their new case. She shouldn’t stay for long. She wished she would be able to talk with Will, she was worried about this case, two little girls killed, that wouldn’t be good at all for his stability.  However, before the father and the daughter came, Hannibal passed by to pay her a visit. She completely forgot he had to come because she wanted an advice on a patient.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t remember you had to come, I accepted to babysit Will’s daughter.”

“It doesn’t bother me at all, but if you want me to leave, then I won’t stay.”

“No, it’s alright.”

He heard the doorbell and went to open the door before Alana. When Hannibal saw Will with his daughter in his arms, he immediately saw the resemblance between them, it was really obvious. Not only they had the same eyes colour, the same dark curly hair but there was also something in the shapes of the girl that made him think of Will, she definitely looked like him. She stared at him with curiosity and her father was genuinely surprised to see him here.

“Doctor? I didn’t know you would be there.”

“Hello Will. I just came by to visit Alana, come in.”

Speaking of the devil, the dark haired woman greeted both of them, she was obviously very fond of the child and it was reciprocate according to the smile the kid gave her. Yet she took her eyes off Alana as her father was putting her on the ground to look at Hannibal again. He smiled gently to her.

“What’s your name?”

She shyly turned her head away, clutching to her dad, and at this moment, an image imposed itself to Hannibal: his little sister Mischa, doing exactly the same gesture when someone would be introduced to her, turning her head and her big blue eyes away... It hit him full force so much that he lost his composure for a second and he felt his head spinning while his gut tightened. He never let go of the pain he felt over Mischa’s death, he learned to live with it, to let it sleep in his heart and it just awoke brutally. Hannibal wasn’t much around small children, but he had come across some in the past, yet none ever reminded him of his sister like that.

He regained his usual calm and collected mask, Alana didn’t notice anything but Will did and it was surprising him.

“She can be shy when she doesn’t know someone, it’s not against you.”

“Oh I understand, my...I had a cousin like that in the past.”

He didn’t want to say his sister, because it was way too personal. Obviously Will believed that and gave Alana a bag with the little girl’s stuff, explaining her what she would need while the girl was starting to look at everything around. Once again Hannibal couldn’t help but watch her and remember Mischa, she was so innocent and curious. Graham went to her and took her in his arms again.

“Come on, say goodbye to daddy.”

“ _You come back soon?_ ”

“Yes, I promise, but speak in English here.”

“She speaks Russian?”

Hannibal was baffled this time. The reminder was even stronger. He and his sister were Lithuanian, but he learned Russian very young and those two tongues had similarities, so hearing that little girl speak in a Baltic language, having Mischa’s gestures…Will explained about his Russian father and how he taught his daughter.

Will kissed her cheek and she mimicked him, it was strange to see this man usually so introverted being openly affectionate. Another image imposed itself in his mind: himself and little Mischa when they were still together, when he would take her in his arms and tell her nice things. Graham left after that, thanking Alana again for watching over her, yet Hannibal was pretty sure that the woman was actually glad to do this.

“Ellie, sweetheart, are you hungry?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, I’ll prepare you something.”

“I can give you a hand with that, so we can continue to talk.”

“It’s okay, just keep an eye on her I’m simply preparing her a snack.”

She went to the kitchen while the little girl looked up at Hannibal, obviously intimidated. He decided to talk to her like her father would, in Russian.

“ _You often come here?_ ”

“ _You understand when we talk like that?”_

“ _Yes, I do. I learned as a little boy._ ”

“ _But not Alana._ ”

“ _No, she can’t understand what we are saying. Your dad is a friend of mine my name is Hannibal._ ”

“ _It’s a funny name! Can you help me?_ ”

She showed him her bag and he understood she wanted him to open it. She started to play with the Barbie dolls her father brought along so she could play. Hannibal stood between the living room and the kitchen, allowing him to speak with Alana and keep an eye on Ellie. For once he was glad not to cook; he wanted to observe the little girl, though it was painful in a way, it also felt good to remember.

“I didn’t know you could speak Russian, but I guess I shouldn’t be astonished when it comes to you,” Alana stated.

“I do, I learned as a kid. I’m pretty sure you notice that Will doesn’t act the same around her,” he told Alana

“Indeed, I really like to see them together, he seems much happier and at ease.”

“I still need to observe them a little more, but it seems like she is a source of stability for her father.”

“We completely agree on that! I could observe them and even when it was difficult for Will, I could see being a dad was anchoring him to reality. I was scared he would react in a bad way, for some unstable people having a child just worsen things up, but for others it’s actually a way to salvation. Thank God Will belong to the second category.”

Hannibal nodded. He could understand what gave Will that strength, he felt the same when he was young and had his own little one, she was almost his daughter and he had done everything he could to protect her and raise her. It was really an unsettling situation for him, he had almost spoke of his sister, something he never did, yet this was also strangely blissful, even if she didn’t look like her sister (except for the blue eyes), Ellie was giving him the sensation to be around Mischa again. It was priceless.

Alana came back with a sandwich of jam, she was being motherly and Hannibal just observed her, he was just talking nicely to the girl who was opening up to him quite quickly. When she was done eating, Alana let her play in the living room while the adults were talking. Hannibal did his best not to show his new fondness over the child, it could have appeared suspicious for a grown man. Instead he just enjoyed Alana’s conversation and simply kept an eye on Ellie as any careful adult would.

“You know,” Alana said in a more hushed voice so the girl wouldn’t hear, “I’m worried about Will, the case he is working on will touch him more than anyone else. I wanted to talk to him about it, but he left so quickly...”

“I agree on that. We will have a session tomorrow, I will speak to him, don’t worry.”

She smiled thankfully. She could trust Hannibal Lecter, she knew that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal finally meet little Ellie and Will is under a bigger pressure now...Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, it's always good to have other opinions on what I write!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone! I hope you liked the previous chapters and that you'll like this one. I know I talk a lot about Ellie and her relationship with Will, but don't worry, I will also focus on Will and Hannibal, and the case. In this chapter, Hannibal will start to be 'interested' by the Tanners, no need to tell it's not good news.

While Alana and Hannibal were watching over Ellie, Beverly, Brian and Jimmy were examining the corpses, watched by Will who was still thinking of the profile. He still hated the sight of the children though they hadn’t been massacred as their parents. Lily and Olivia were their name and they turned six years old last month. It was official now: they had been raped and then strangled. The three agents were all disgusted but Will was feeling nauseous. For a moment, instead of the little girls, he imagined his own daughter again and it made him cringe, he hated that, he hated his imagination.

“Are you feeling okay?”

He almost jumped in surprise at Beverly’s question. She seemed concerned for him; out of the three she was the one who liked him the most.

“Hum...Yeah.”

“I hate when there are children involved,” she continued to encourage him to talk.

“So do I, if I wasn’t more experienced I would probably empty my guts out,” Zeller said without looking at any of them, still focusing on his job.

Graham still wasn’t good at socializing, but he knew they would think of him as too fragile if he didn’t explain a little, so he decided to open up, just a little:

“It’s just that they are really young, hardly older than my own daughter, so I...”

“You have a kid?” Bev asked in astonishment.

This time, the three of them looked at him, not only Beverly, and Will didn’t like it so much, why was it such a surprise?

“Yes. I never mentioned it?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Price said.

“So you’re married?” Zeller wondered then

“No, I’m single and her mother...Well I haven’t heard about her since long.”

To his relief, Jack entered the room and they stopped asking him question to go back to their work. He knew why they were all so surprised, they viewed him as a weirdo who lived alone in some kind of cave, Beverly was more open but she viewed him as an asocial, so learning he was a dad was probably weird to them.

“So what can you tell me?”

“The two of them were raped, and strangled but there are no fingerprints. The killer used a condom obviously, he had been very careful not to let traces. It also seems like he cleaned their thighs.”

“It was to clean the skin particles you might have found,” Will said. “Most of people don’t know about skin particles that can be left on crime scenes, so either he did some researches, either he is in contact with law enforcement.”

This was something that no one really liked to hear, the prospect of their killer being possibly one of them wasn’t something agents or cops liked, because in this job you needed to trust your colleagues. That’s why unconsciously Jack and the three forensic hoped Will was wrong. This perspective scared Will too, because he wished he could trust the people he worked with and he was painfully reminded that you could easily be betrayed.

“Maybe it’s not his first time either,” Price ventured. “I mean the crime scene was pretty neat, it was no amateur.”

“I don’t remember any cases like this one lately in Virginia,” Jack opposed.

“Maybe he didn’t kill in Virginia,” Will suggested, “or maybe he killed in another way, but I agree, he has experience.”

They would have to research for any similar cases, Graham and Crawford left the morgue to make the victims’ profile and see if there were any possibility to find correspondence. Will only left after what seemed like a really long time, feeling rather tired.  

 

**O o O**

After he took Ellie back from Alana’s home, they went to do some shopping, school phoned him earlier to warn him that lice had been found in some kids’ hairs and it was advised to buy some special shampoo. They needed to buy groceries anyway.

“Can we have peanut butter dad? Alana made me a sandwich with peanut butter.”

“You like that? I never did.”

“But it’s good! Why you don’t like it?”

“Because I don’t, some people likes it and other don’t, it’s just like that. You like apples but other people don’t like it because we don’t all like the same things.”

“Why?”

“Because if everyone liked the same things, we would fight over it. Okay, I’ll get you some peanut butter, but don’t give any to the dogs; I’m not sure it would be good for them.”

“Why?”

“Because there are some things that people can eat but not dogs, like sugar and chocolate. And actually even humans shouldn’t eat too much sugar and chocolate.”

She continued to ask some questions, she was always very curious, which was normal at her age. Later at home, when he gave her a bath and started to wash her hair, she asked questions again. Winston was in the bathroom with them, observing the two carefully, as if he was supervising what was happening or watching that Will was doing his duty well enough.

“Why did you buy another shampoo?”

“Because school told me that some other kids have lice, and I don’t want you to catch any. This one is especially made to avoid it.”

“What are lice?”

“Little beasts, very small that live on people’s head, they hide in their hair.”

“Really? You can have animals living on your head?”

 “Oh yes, and I don’t want you to catch any.”

“But I want to have little animals on my head! It will be my new pets! So they’ll make houses in my hair!”

At this Will laughed out as he was rubbing her scalp gently and carefully to apply the shampoo everywhere.

“Beware; they might build a little town on your head if you let them.”

When she heard this, she looked at him bewildered and impressed, imagining what it would be like to have a very small town in her hair.

“With little schools and houses?”

“Yes, lice have children too. But if they do that, your head will feel heavy and you won’t be able to hold it in place anymore.”

She was agape at that, Will knew that this time in which she could believe anything he would tell her would pass soon, and he liked to let her imagine such things. Yet he decided to add some truth because this might not dissuade Ellie from wanting lice.

“Plus lice also scratches bad, you’ll feel them all day and constantly think of scratching your head, they are also very dirty.”

She had a wince, she certainly didn’t want to have little beasts scratching her scalp and building a town in her hair that would make her head feel heavy!

“Then I don’t want any.”

“That’s what I thought. Close your eyes.”

He poured water on her head carefully, avoiding her eyes. Once all the shampoo was away, her wet soft curls were sticking to her neck and shoulders. Will smiled, she really inherited his hair, it was like cleaning his own except that they were longer on her head. He let her play a little in her bath and just stayed at her side to watch over her, caressing Winston meanwhile.

“Alana has pretty hair, when I’ll grow up, I will have the same?”

“We’ll see that, I’m sure you’ll have a nice mop.”

Hearing about Alana made him thought again of the moment when they encountered Hannibal at Alana’s place. He couldn’t help but think that the doctor got a strange reaction when he saw her, and Will wondered why. Was it because she didn’t say hello back to him? He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to know.

“The man who was with her was nice with you?”

“Hannibal?”

“Yes.”

“He was nice, he spoke with Alana a lot, but with me, he didn’t speak a lot. He speaks like us too!”

“Like us?”

“Yeah, in Russian!”

Will nodded, not sure how he should feel. Somehow, this new case made him warier than usual. He would have another session with him tomorrow and he would take advantage of it.

 

**O o O**

The next day, at his work, Hannibal was trying his best to listen to one of his patient. The man was depressive, pretty boring and today, he didn’t have the time to put up with that kind of people. Yet he had to, it was his job after all. He wished Will Graham was here instead. He liked to talk with him, that one was interesting: less boring than most agents or patients he met. Hannibal enjoyed that mind full of moral values and darkness, Will was someone smart and complex and he enjoyed spending time with him. He also wished to see his daughter again. She had reminded him so strongly of Mischa...There was nothing complex about her; she was just innocent and happy, maybe a little sad because her daddy didn’t have enough time for her recently. Both the father and the daughter represented an interest for him, and Hannibal didn’t intend to let go of them easily, not as long as they interested him.

The hours passed and finally the time of his appointment with Graham came. He saw Will standing at his door and took delight in the hint of torment in his feature which he was trying to hide. He would make sure that Graham would let the façade drop.

“Hi Doctor.”

“Hi Will, come in please.”

They took place in their respective seats and Hannibal could feel that his patient was tenser than usual.

“You seem under stress. Is your little girl alright?”

“Why are you asking?”

“I’m simply taking a wild guess to know why you look so tense.”

Will simply bit his lips and Hannibal felt he got it right, and he expected him to say that he was scared because of the recent case, that’s why he was a little surprised when he heard Graham’s answer:

“Yesterday when you saw her, you had a strange reaction...You say she reminded you of a cousin.”

“Yes, a little girl like her. She would often be shy toward strangers too. The way your daughter turned her head made me think of her again, like a flash memory, it had been a long time since I didn’t.”

“Where is she now?”

“She is dead. She died very young.”

Will fell silent and felt bad for asking, he didn’t want the doctor to be hurt because of a misplaced curiosity, he realized he had been intrusive. This case made him paranoid, he had to calm down.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s normal for you to wonder, as a responsible parent you have to protect your child from any danger and my reaction seemed strange to you. You don’t know me since long and you had to be sure I’m no threat. But now that this matter is settled, let’s go back to you. How are you handling that case? We didn’t have the occasion to speak about it.”

“Well…I have to admit it’s not exactly easy. Usually, getting in the head of serial killers is difficult, not because it’s especially hard intellectually speaking but because I always have to be careful not to lose myself. But here, it’s worse.”

“Identifying with a man feeling sexual attraction toward children can be a disturbing experience. I’ll advise you strongly not to push yourself too far. What did you see on the crime scene?”

“I saw Ellie, dead like those little girls. And I also saw my neighbours, the Tanners. I saw them dead instead of the victims, parents and children; I hated it…I don’t remember if I told you about them, did I do it?”

“You mentioned them. Why did you see them especially?”

“They are...Well they are my friends and I fear that they fit the profile. They are really the normal and apple pie family, pretty much the kind this killer likes, and their daughter is six, not too old for him.”

“I would like you to tell me more about the Tanner, now or later, we can continue to talk about the case.”

Hannibal was glad to see that the collected façade dropped and was replaced by the tormented expression he was hoping for. Will was actually beautiful like this, he couldn’t deny it, his tortured psyche and features were a gorgeous cocktail. It would be good to spend time with him for something else than an appointment or a case.

“Honestly, sometimes it’s weird to call them friends…They are not the usual type of people I bond with but it worked with them. They often babysit Ellie for me. I’m glad that she can have a family to show her…What family is like. Her mother isn’t here and I couldn’t find a woman to share my life with. And even for myself, I’m glad to have them. Ed, the father, helped me when that article about me was published in the Tattler.”

“What did he do?”

“He told everyone in the neighbourhood that the one who wrote that is a bad journalist and that every other reporter despise her, that she had a lot of problems with justice…Well, everything which was needed to make her lose credibility.”

“And what did you feel at that?”

“Hum…It was nice to feel supported. I know I can rely on them, and it’s good.”

“What about the rest of the neighbourhood?”

“They mostly consider me as the weird but inoffensive guy. I’m getting along with them, but I don’t hang around with them a lot. The Tanners are the only ones with whom I feel close.”

“Did you speak with them about all this?”

“No, they just left to see Sarah’s parents for a few days, but I think I will speak with them once they are back…I think Sarah is worried for me, because of my job, she doesn’t say it but I can feel it at times.”

“She is not the only one: Alana also is, and sometimes I am as well. You said that you took that job to afford your daughter’s treatment and I can perfectly understand. Tell me, Will, is there another reason why you accepted to work for Jack?”

Will lowered his head, as if he was ashamed and Lecter smiled internally.

“I…I have to admit that a part of me also…want to do this job. I don’t know why.”

“You want to do this because you’re fascinated. Killers, psychopath…They attract you somehow.”

“No, it’s…It’s not like that!”

“You don’t have to feel ashamed. They also attract me somehow, and Alana, and Jack. They can deny it, but they are and it’s normal, we all have some kind of fascination for darkness.”

“I know but it’s different with me. I can empathize with them and I fear that if I let them fascinate me a little too much, then they might take over me. And I can’t do that to my daughter, I have to be here for her.”

Hannibal nodded, Graham just confirmed what he thought already, his daughter was his strength, keeping him anchored to reality and willing to fight but he still had an attraction for the darkest minds of humanity and even his love for Ellie wouldn’t really take him away from it if temptation was too strong. The conversation about the Tanners had also been interesting; obviously Hannibal had underestimated the importance of Will’s friends. Maybe they could be of good use eventually for what he was planning for his patient.

The conversation went back on the case and Graham spoke of his aversion for the killer. Lecter could perfectly understand, he never liked pedophiles, they were lower than pigs to him. He had never killed children and he probably never would, that was maybe one of his few limits. When Will left, he felt a little disappointed that their appointment didn’t last longer. Once alone in his office, he surprised himself thinking of the Tanners, those people he never saw and who were probably not really interesting…They were probably nothing but common, plain people and yet…He thought of them near Will, being part of his life, and he hated himself but he felt jealous…Yes, he was jealous of people he never met, jealous for a man who was indeed interesting but shouldn’t make him feel so much. He would have to rectify the situation, he knew it.

 

**O o O**

When Will got out, he saw a red-haired woman standing in the street; he didn’t pay attention to her at first until she called him by his name.

“Mr Graham?”

“Yes?”

“Would you mind if we speak? My name is Freddie Lounds from Tattler Crime…”

“Oh, I see who you are. You wrote all that dumb things about me.”

“Only things which were reported to me, and true since you’re going to a shrink. But now I admit I was maybe a little too hasty and it was unfair not to meet you first.”

Old Will would have probably not known what to answer, but he was more used to interact with other people and defend himself. He knew he had to be careful with his words.

“But you still think what you wrote is true. You didn’t think that whoever told you that might be a liar? Or that whatever trouble I have were my business only?”

“Well, you could explain me the truth, we could really cooperate together and I can undo what I said.”

“So I will help sell your crap online. Why would I trust you, honestly?”

“I can undo what I said, I can worsen it.”

“Are you threatening me?”

He stared at her, pretty baffled at her stupidity. She was trying to blackmail an agent? He remembered what he had heard about her from Ed and Jack, it could be useful. She seemed to feel the danger.

“It’s more like a warning.”

“Nope, that’s a threat, I could even call it an attempt of blackmail, I can report you for that, not that it’s the first time for you.”

“I’ll deny everything.”

“What good would it do? From what I heard, because there are also rumours about you, you got sued six times, never won a trial, and from what I heard you had some cops in Baltimore fired and already got in trouble with authorities. Who will they believe between you and me? You know, I might need a psychiatrist, but at least I got no record, unlike you. Good night.”

With that, he just walked away, pissed off, but he at least had the pleasure to see she was also pissed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hesitate to tell me what you think! Constructive criticism are always appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! Last chapter of summer, I guess. I hope you'll enjoy it, it's more focused on the case, I must say I love case-fics but they are hard to write.

Right after his session with Hannibal and his encounter with Freddie, he took Ellie back from Mrs Boyle, an old neighbor he knew since he moved in, a little strict but not bad and he could see she would never let anything bad happen to Ellie, she was very responsible. He would have preferred to give her to Alana but she didn’t have enough time today, and the Tanners weren’t home yet. The little girl just put herself in his arms and let him carry her home, her head against his shoulder, half-asleep. It was good to hug her. After she went to bed, while he was working, he received a call from Ed, Will wondered what it was about and was worried for a moment to hear bad news.

“Hi, Ed.”

“Hi, Will! How are you?”

“Fine, I have a lot of work, but it’s okay. Enjoying your vacations?”

“It’s a family reunion, I argued more in three days than in three months!”

“Oh Gosh, that’s why I’m glad to have none of that.”

“It has its good side, Sarah’s aunt is a wonderful cook. But I’m not calling for that, it’s about one of my colleague, Lauren, she wrote about the recent case, you know, about those families.”

“Yeah, I know. I work on it.”

“She would like an interview, not only about the case but also about you.”

Will thought about it. He would have been okay if his friend had been the one to do it, but Ed was a political journalist so he wouldn’t be the one to write about him and maybe that was better, he could have been accused of being partial.

“Lauren is a good reporter,” his friend explained, “and she isn’t biased with stupid prejudices. You can trust her.”

“Oh, I trust you with that, it’s just that I’ll have to talk with Jack about it, I can’t give information without his consent. Give her my number if you want, or give me hers, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay if that doesn’t bother you.”

“No. I owe you that after Lounds.”

“That’s true, you do,” he said in a facetious tone. “And once again, don’t worry, I think it will benefit your reputation.”

“Okay. Give me her numbers, I’ll contact her.”

“I send it to you right now.”

To tell the truth, Will wasn’t sure about it, but maybe it was for the best, the only reporter who wrote about him was Lounds, maybe someone working in the Baltimore Sun would have more influence. Plus, he wanted to do this favor to Ed, and give to another journalist what Lounds wouldn’t have. Yes, it would do. He just had to see if it was okay with his boss.

The next morning, he found Jack and Alana talking in Crawford’s office, he explained them about what Ed asked.

“To be honest I thought asking Lounds.”

“Why her?”

“I’d rather control what she will put in her articles.”

“She doesn’t have a serious newspaper, the Baltimore Sun has more influence and someone like Lounds will always put trash in her blog.”

“I think Will is right,” Alana said, “we should have a wider net.”

Will smiled to Alana, she knew how to be supportive when it was needed, she winked at him. Crawford pondered over what they said, and eventually, he accepted. Will gave him Lauren’s number and the woman got an appointment in the afternoon. First, Jack wanted to talk to them about the profile.

“We interviewed neighbors and friends, but they had no enemies apparently, some little arguments with some neighbors but nothing serious and they have alibis. They didn’t see anyone enter the house or hear suspect sounds.” Jack summed up.

“I doubt it’s personal, it’s because he was attracted to the girls.”

“Any other cases like this?” Alana enquired.

“We made researches, but we didn’t found cases with enough similarities to be sure he already killed entire families like this,” Jack declared, “however a dead little girl had been found a month ago in Ashland, hands tied and killed by strangulation. Her parents weren’t killed however and it seems that she followed someone while playing in the park.”

“He could be evolving,” Alana suggested, “maybe he didn’t have enough confidence to attack an entire family.”

“How old was she?” Will asked.

“Six years old.”

“It’s the age he likes. He didn’t have enough confidence to attack their family, but he kidnapped a child in broad day. He probably had a good cover for that. He isn’t the kind to take risks for nothing; he can kill an entire family, but not without doing the best to avoid a physical fight. He entered as silently as possible and stabbed the father first before he could wake up because he didn’t want to fight.”

“He could have taken a gun,” Jack pointed out. “But he choose a knife, if he want to avoid confrontation, it’s not the best way.”

“The knife is more personal, he could be projecting the anger he feels against his own parents, he wants to punish them but don’t feel able to fight on an equal foot” Alana countered. “But I wonder if there is only one killer, the method of killing is different.”

“No, he is alone. As you said, he projects the anger he feels against his own parents, and the knife is the best weapon to take it out. Not only, it’s closer, more personal, but it’s also some kind of foreplay for what he is about to do after,” Will explained.

“You think killing the parents is part of the sexual excitement?”

“Well, he doesn’t exactly _need_ it, he wanted those girls anyway. But it probably gave him a sentiment of power which only added even more pleasure to what he did. As for not stabbing the girls…He doesn’t want to be violent with them, he is persuaded to love them, he doesn’t want to kill them like the parents, it would be…Wrong to damage their bodies the same way.”

“He loves their bodies too much for that…Maybe he consider the knife used to kill their parents unworthy of them,” Jack suggested.          “We need to study the case of Ashland, I asked them to give us all the files they can about it.”

He showed them the files and they watched it together. The little girl, Mya Tilton, was also dark-haired and looked quite like the other girls, she had been gagged, tied, raped and then strangled. Once again, there were no fingerprint, no skin particles, nothing that could help identify the killer. Will was sure it was him, he could recognize him in this crime, he was sure he loved this girl, he wanted to possess her, just like Lily and Olivia Connors. He wondered if he had molested children before without killing them…No, possessing them meant killing them too, it was essential, and he wouldn’t risk them to eventually talk. No, he began by killing, and he wouldn’t stop.

 

**O o O**

When the afternoon came, they met with Lauren Horns, a tall, chestnut-haired woman. She smiled to Will hugely when he introduced himself.

“It’s good to meet you, even if the circumstances are pretty grim.”

“Ed told me a lot about you,” Will awkwardly said.

“It’s an old friend, we work together since years. Sadly I rarely have the time to visit him.”

“If you don’t mind, I would like to begin with the interview. I’m sure we both have a lot of work,” Jack declared.

“Of course.”

Jack gave her some information but didn’t say it could be linked to what happened to Mya Tilton. He explained what happened to the family and that they had no traces of DNA. For now they didn’t have any serious lead, the neighbors didn’t seem suspect, the Connors didn’t have any known enemies. They were actively working on the profile.

“Speaking of that, I was wondering about you Mr Graham: isn’t working on such a case dangerous for you, given your instability?”

He was waiting for such question, but he was glad that it wasn’t asked with disdain or spite.

“Well, that kind of case is hard for every workers. Mental instability can be a problem, but it doesn’t mean you can’t work or handle a difficult situation, it is just harder.”

“But you’re followed by a therapist.”

“Yes, to be sure I’m not pushing myself too far and for now I’m apt to work.”

“Therapist often follows agents,” added Jack Crawford, “this job is tough and a lot of them feel the need to get psychological support. People often mistake that for a sign of dementia, but it’s actually a normal reaction.”

She went on with her questions and when she was satisfied, she finally left, thanking them for their time. She had been nice; it was good to see nice reporters. Alana also shared his opinion, and she voiced it to Jack, saying that it would be good to work with her in the future.

Lauren’s article came out the next morning and it was definitely picturing the victims in a more respectful way than Tattler Crime ever would. What she wrote about him was also better, she didn’t put too much spotlight on him, just enough to show him in a better way. Yet, Will didn’t read her article immediately; he had a lot of work.

In order to know more about the Ashland case, Jack and he went to see the parents, but they couldn’t learn anything else. The two had divorced and it was obvious it as an awkward reunion:

“I know this will be painful, but I need to ask you some questions.”

“We already answered many questions, it never helped to find the monster who did that,” the mother said bitterly.

“We might have a new lead. Can you explain me what happened that day?”

“Melanie was at her work, and I decided to take Mya to the park, it was a beautiful day…I just turned my head away for a minute…I always told her not to follow any strangers,” the father explained before his voice broke.

They gave him a minute to continue, Will couldn’t help but visualize himself exactly like that, trying not to cry while explaining how Ellie disappeared…He tried to push away this image, no she was alive and well.

“I got into an argument it with another father, over a stupid thing. Then, when I called Mya, I couldn’t see her anymore, we all searched for her. It’s only two days after that we found her in the woods…”

“You said you saw no one suspect around your daughter?”

“No, no one. I should have been more careful.”

“Apparently…The police said he had been very careful,” the mother said, her voice filled with hatred, bitterness and sadness.

At least, it fitted the profile, Will was sure their killer was the same guy. He felt remorseful seeing those parents tormented again by their interviews, he felt like they were just reopening old wounds. When he saw them, still so hurt, so miserable even after the efforts they did to rebuild themselves, Will wished that if something like this ever happened to Ellie, then he would rather die with her than be spared. Then he swore nothing like this would happen to her, he would rather endure a thousand deaths.

 

**O o O**

During the next few days, Will was still haunted by what he saw on the crime scene. He had nightmares almost every night, he really didn’t want to enter that man’s mind, but he had to, he couldn’t let him continue, he wouldn’t forgive himself if he stopped and let other families and little girls getting killed. Plus he still needed this job. It could seem trivial, but he went with his daughter to check up her eyes again, it was only improving slowly and it would take some years before it fully recovered.

One evening, when he came back from his last class, he saw the Tanners were back from their travel and Will decided to talk to them. He spotted Ed playing with his children in the garden. He took Ellie with him and let her play with her friends while he would talk to their father. Ed already heard of those murders of course, but he didn’t know how the killer could target little girls.

“You think he could come and attack us?” Ed asked.

“I don’t want you to panic but it’s a possibility, everyone has to be prudent,” Graham explained.

“Hell…And you have no lead?”

“Not really, he is good to cover his tracks. Your colleagues already wrote about it?” He asked to Ed

“Yeah. By the way, she phoned me to know if she could interview you, maybe you should accept.”

“I can’t say anything for now, but give me her number, I’ll tell Jack to contact her if we need to talk to the press.”

“Alright. Thanks for that and…Everything else. Do you need us to keep Ellie?”

“Not tonight but I might tomorrow.”

Ed nodded, and looked more closely at his friend, Will seemed really tired.

“Are you okay? I mean you have two jobs and a kid.”

“Yeah, it’s just that…I saw two little girls dead and…raped and I couldn’t help but imagine that it could happen to Ellie.”

He didn’t tell him of course that he visualized them being attacked. The Tanners were maybe his best friends and though he wanted to warn them, he didn’t want to scare them.

“I understand, I also imagined Max and Stacy getting attacked like this when I heard of it. It’s…God, I hate that kind of perverts.”

Will nodded in approval, both men looked at the children who weren’t listening at all, and it was for the best. Sarah came out and invited Will to go inside for a little while. He gladly accepted and the children ran in to eat some cookies.

Sitting in the living room, careful not to be heard, Will and Ed told her what they spoke about and once they were done, the first thing she did was looking at the children who followed them inside. They were playing happily while eating cookies. She took her head in her hands and sighed deeply. For a moment, she saw what could happen and she hated it. She also had this strange feeling that somehow, something was going to happen. Maybe it was just fear, but she couldn’t help it.

“Will, promise me you’ll capture this son of a bitch,” she said softly to avoid children hearing her.

He knew it wasn’t wise to promise, because he might never do it, so he swore he would do everything he could. When he was called to a new crime scene two days later, the first thing he thought about when he heard Jack telling about a new family murdered was Sarah’s words. He felt like he failed again.

“It’s the Ditts family, pretty much the same except that our killer made a mistake this time,” Jack was saying on the phone.

“What?”

“The mother survived. She is not out of the blue yet, she is in comatose but if she wakes up, she might have a chance to tell us who it is.”

And learn that all her family was dead. Will couldn’t imagine how she would feel when they would tell her that her husband and her children were dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I must say I enjoyed writing Lauren, to have nice journalist around Will for once, he definitely needs it! I know, there was no Hannibal in this chapter, but it won't stay that way, I promise. Don't hesitate to review!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! New chapter is here and things aren't getting better for the investigation. Enjoy!

Once again, the crime scene was hardly bearable for Will, he saw two little boys and a little girl, but didn’t stay around the corpses, he didn’t want to. Instead he looked everywhere to learn more about this family. They were happy, they had some money problems but the pictures revealed that their happiness wasn’t faked. It was rare, and it made him feel even sadder, because this happiness had been destroyed forever. The father seemed like a good dad, who took time to play with his kids and for that, he reminded him of himself and Ed. In fact this family was quite similar to the Tanners and for a moment, his imagination took over and he saw himself staring at the corpses of his friends, the whole family massacred, Stacy raped and strangled and her brother also dead. Then, it’s Ellie he saw again, dead like the little girl here. 

He breathed in deeply and forced himself to clear his mind from this image. He couldn’t let his fear distract him, he had to do his job, it was the best way to protect them. When he was alone, he let his own mind skip into the killer’s one. The killer didn’t rape the two boys, he murdered them like their sister, but he wasn’t interested in them, taking their lives was just a way to assert his dominance over the family, to show he was here to take whatever he wanted. He had felt rage toward the parents again, he wanted the mother to look and suffer, that’s why he didn’t kill her like the husband, he wanted her to agonize slowly, however it was a big mistake as she survived.

He prayed silently that she would wake up, that she wouldn’t die at the hospital, like Abigail Hobbs did. He shook those thoughts off, he couldn’t think of that poor girl, not now.

Will went back to the profile. They already established that the killer was angry, but he wasn’t a sadist, otherwise he could have made the boys suffer, but no, he killed them before taking their sister. He saw those little girls as some kind of precious objects for him to take. He wanted them to belong to him, their innocence, youth and beauty had to be his, the pain was a necessary evil. Even toward the parents, it wasn’t sadism but revenge, he felt like this was fair. He was probably abused as a child and was portraying exactly what he wished to inflict on his parents.

_I stab them because I couldn’t kill my own parents, I picture again and again what I’ll never truly get. The parents represent my own and the little girls…They are someone I couldn’t get either. Killing my parents and getting her was something I couldn’t do…I want to hurt those people not only because they remind me of my parents, but because just like my parents, they own they object of my desire…_

“Jack?”

The older man turned toward Will, hoping the profiler would give him something helpful.

“He re-enacts a fantasy: killing his parents to take a girl of his own family. The little girls, he wants them because they remind him of one who he couldn’t have.”

“Like Hobbs was killing because of his daughter?”

“Hobbs was trying to hide the killing of his own daughter among other victims. This one kills because he is frustrated over what never happened. The girl could be his sister, or a cousin.”

“That’s how he choose them?”

“I think so. Now I’m not sure if the parents are an essential component or not, but I think they are. Without them, the whole thing isn’t complete.”

‘You need to work more on that, we made progress but there is something we are missing.”

“I know Jack, but that’s all I got for now.”

“Maybe we could ask Hannibal for a second advice. I’ll call him.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Will liked the idea, maybe he would be more at ease with this case if Hannibal was also here to help. The idea of children being raped was too hard, a part of him tried to do the job but the other one wanted to take his distances.

 

**O o O**

When Will came back home this evening, he picked up Ellie from the Tanners, she was obviously happy to be baby-sitted by them again, Sarah looked worried however. Ed wasn’t here, he was working late lately.

“Damn, Will, you look exhausted.”

“I am, this case is really not easy.”

“I guess so. Last night I got a nightmare because of what I heard.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No, I know, I’m glad you told us to be careful. Be careful too, Will.”

“Don’t worry.”

After they parted, he listened to Ellie babbling about what she did today, until he heard a voice calling his name.

“Will! Hey!”

He saw Cynthia Bells walking toward them with Drew Purnell, both lived nearby and they had kids. Will remembered Sarah telling him that Cynthia Bells had a thing for him while they were picking up the kids at school and he could see again the lust in her eyes, the first time had been at school, when he was waiting for Ellie after taking Jack’s offer. He hoped he wasn’t blushing and he answered the most naturally possible:

“Hey, how are you?”

“We’re fine. Hi, Ellie!”

“Hi, Drew…” The little girl said while smiling.

Cynthia pinched Ellie’s cheek nicely, making the little girl giggle. Graham was tired and wanted nothing but go home, yet he decided not to show it, Sarah told him those two had defended him along with Ed when the Tattler Crime trashed him down. He knew Cynthia might have done only to get on his good side and in his pants, but he still owed her some curtesy. As for Drew, she was just a very nice woman and if she did defend him, he knew it was out of genuine kindness.

“We were strolling around, and we decided to congratulate you,” Cynthia explained in a seductive tone.

“Congratulate me?”

“About the newspaper, we saw that article in the Baltimore Sun, we are glad for you,” Drew said cheerfully.

He smiled to her, Drew was always smiling and trying to cheer up everyone, Will and she had never been close but he liked her nonetheless.

“Thank you, I was worried it might have bad consequences for both of us,” he said while gesturing with a slight nod to Ellie.

“Of course not, we wouldn’t have believed any of it, Ed told us about the one who wrote about you, really, there are awful people out there.”

“What are you talking about?” Asked Ellie curiously.

Her dad didn’t tell her about the article of course, because she was four, so he just explained her briefly:

“A bad woman wrote some mean things about me, sweetie.”

“Why?”

“Because some people are mean and just can’t do anything else but tell lies.”

The little girl frowned, outraged and baffled that someone did such a thing to her daddy.

“I’ll hit her!”

This made both Will and the women smile.

“No, sweetie, you don’t solve things like this. And a nice woman wrote the truth about me, so don’t worry,” he explained her nicely.

“Well, that’s good, and I hope the mean woman will be punished.”

“I hope so too.”

He turned to the two women again.

“You might not believe it but she came to see me, ask me for an interview.”

Both women looked positively and genuinely stunned; Ed and Sarah had the same reaction when he told them after their return. He didn’t enjoy gossiping but he had learned the importance of giving your version of things whenever something bad happened.

“You serious?”

“Oh yeah, she said she had been a little too hasty in what she wrote and she wanted to know my point of view.”

“You think she was sincere?” Drew asked.

“She wasn’t, she just wanted to use him.”

He had to give that to Cynthia, she wasn’t naïve at all. For a moment he wondered what it would be like to see her face to face with Lounds.

“Yeah, I could see it in her eyes, she just wanted an interview, she wasn’t remorseful or anything else. If I have something to say I would rather say it to someone who didn’t drag me in the mud.”

Cynthia put a hand on his biceps in a manner that could have looked comforting but he had the feeling it wasn’t exactly her intention.

“If you need any help, with your daughter or anything else, you’re free to ask us.”

He just thanked her and said he would think about it, but swore silently he wouldn’t ask anything to Cynthia, he would have a hard time facing her husband Derek knowing what feelings his wife had for him. They parted soon enough and Will was relieved to be finally home with his dogs and Ellie. Being social with his neighbours was still difficult at times, but with Cynthia it became harder since he knew she wanted him.

He did most of his tasks while Ellie was playing with the dogs. He thought of the crime scene again, he couldn’t help it. When Jack called Lecter this afternoon, the psychiatrist offered to come and take a look on the crime scene, something Jack accepted with gratitude. To tell the truth, Lecter hadn’t been able to provide much, but at least, Will felt better with him around, somehow the man’s presence grounded him and supported him. He knew they would probably talk about this during their next session, he wondered how this crime scene affected Lecter.

 

**O o O**

Some days after the murder of her family, Mrs Lara Ditts woke up. She was in a fragile state, constantly watched by at least one police agent for her security in case the killer decided to come for her. She had been close to die, if a neighbour hadn’t seen a suspect shadow coming out of her house and quickly called the cops, she would have died. When Will and Jack came to interrogate her, she had been already told about her family; Alana did it because she wanted to be sure that would be well-handled. Yet those kinds of news, even when delivered by someone compassionate and careful like Bloom, were always devastating. When the two men came in her room, the woman looked lifeless even if her eyes were open.

“Mrs Ditts? I’m agent Jack Crawford, from the FBI and this is agent Will Graham.”

She didn’t answer anything.

“Mrs Ditts…We are here to interrogate you about what happened that night. Will you help us?”

“No one was here to help us,” she said in a ghostly voice.

“We know, we are sorry for your loss,” Will said softly.

“My whole family…My children…I heard that Bridget was…My little girl…”

“We really sympathize…” Jack started before being interrupted

“Really? You do? Are you married? Do you have children?”

“I am married and Will here has a little girl.”

The furious look the woman had faded a little and she looked at Will. Her eyes were so full of pain that it was heart-breaking, and with his empathy, it was almost eating Will who could perfectly imagine what she was feeling right now. The sensation of emptiness, that nothing was left and that there would be no tomorrow anymore, that time had stopped and things would always remain like that because nothing would ever overpass the pain.

“How old is she?”

“Four.”

“Mine was four too.”

Cold spread through his body. He focused again on what they were doing; he couldn’t let his imagination run too wild.

“I know. Please, we have to catch this guy quickly, even if it’s hard, you have to remember what happened.”

Lara let out a bitter laugh that was more like a sob. How lost she was probably feeling, she was here wounded and everything she once possessed was taken away from her.

“It’s constantly in my head. I can’t think of anything else!”

“Please, tell us.”

She remained silent for a moment before starting. Both men waited patiently, they perfectly knew it wasn’t easy for a victim to talk and Lara went through much.

“I was awoken when I…I felt something hitting me…My husband’s arm. When I realized what happened…I saw he was…Convulsing…”

She tried hard not to burst crying.

“I was stabbed, I couldn’t understand what was happening…He threw me out of the bed…he stabbed me again…”

“Can you tell what he looked like?”

“He was wearing a mask…A white mask.”

“Did he say anything?”

“No…But he…He…”

She put a hand around her throat, as if she was realizing something.

“He took my necklace.”

“Your necklace?”

“Yes…An old necklace…It belonged to my grandmother.”

“What happened then?”

“I don’t remember…I think I tried to crawl and then I don’t remember anything…I think it’s the moment I lost consciousness…Please, tell me…My children…Did they suffer?”

None of them wanted to answer. The little girl suffered for sure, she got raped. The little boys were killed more quickly and maybe they got a more peaceful death.

“You should rest Mrs Ditts. We might come later but for now, you should rest.”

She didn’t answer anything. Once again, the way she looked at Will was like a stab in the heart for him, he hated the man who did that to her, everything she had was destroyed and he couldn’t give it back.

They came back later with some photo album found in the house and she showed them a picture on which she was wearing the necklace; It was an old sliver cameo pendant, the silver was chiselled finely and the cameo represented a hummingbird and flowers. She asked them to keep the albums, a request none of them could have denied. They kept only one picture on which the necklace was well exposed. It was only once they were far from her room Crawford asked Will:

“Why do you think he took that necklace?”

“It’s another way to show dominance on the family, he might have guessed or hoped this was an old piece of jewellery that was precious for Mrs Ditts. Stealing it is his way to show he robbed them of everything. It’s also part of his signature. He might have stolen other items like that, we might not have noticed.”

“We checked at the Connors’ house, it seems nothing is missing, though we might have missed if a small item had been taken.”

“Yeah…I wonder if he did that on purpose.”

“What?”

“Leaving Mrs Ditts alive, he was wearing a mask, maybe it’s just a precaution he takes each time, but it could also be a way to taunt us or to let us know he took something from them.”

“Then if it’s the case he wasn’t as sloppy as we thought.”

“No, in fact it might be part of his game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't remember, Cynthia briefly appears in the second chapter. Don't hesitate to tell me chat you think!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! I hope you'll like this chapter, things will...Heat up, somehow. I let you see.

After seeing Mrs Ditts at hospital, Graham was glad to go back home to his daughter. He always felt relieved when he would see her alive and well lately. Ed and he had some beers this evening, they shared their worries and Will’s friend also tried to cheer him up, saying there was no way this killer could escape him.

They spent a long time talking before Ed went back home. Will had a lot of work, and he would have to stay up late to catch up to it, yet he wouldn’t have refused to spend some time with Ed, not only he enjoyed it, but he really felt it was least he could do. It would be Sunday tomorrow anyway and he wouldn’t have any classes and would work at home, so he would have the occasion to spend some time with Ellie and work peacefully.

However, the next day, thing didn’t go as Graham predicted.

It was early in the morning when he heard someone pounding at his door. He was half asleep and for some reason he first thought it was Jack, but realized it was absurd, Jack would have called instead of banging at his door. He heard his dogs bark and saw it was six in the morning, it was still dark outside. He got up from bed wondering who the hell was doing that ruckus and went to the door, where he saw the dogs barking furiously. He opened it and saw no one there. He wondered what the hell was happening until he saw his dogs sniffing something.

At his feet laid a little crown made small white roses, and beside it a little pile of white laces on which rested what looked like a necklace.

He was about to touch it when he realized something: it looked like the necklace the killer stole from Mrs Ditts, he still remembered the picture she showed them. A silver cameo pendant…What the hell did that mean?! Pushing the dogs away, he took a paper and seized the necklace in it.

It was exactly that, it was the same jewel. It seemed like everything around him went cold.

He knew he would have to ask the lab to search for fingerprints, but if there was any it would be the one of Lara Ditts, as some kind of message. He heard soft footsteps and knew it was Ellie; he didn’t want her to see this. She looked in a bad mood because she had been awoken early, she had tears that threatened to flow and a frown on her face.

“What do you do, daddy?”

“Nothing, someone played us a joke and tapped at the door.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, it was just a joke.”

“Tell them they are mean.”

Thank God kids could believe almost anything at that age. He was careful not to let her see the flowers especially, she would want to play with those, and even if those were certainly not dangerous (though they would have to check if there was no poison on it), the very idea of her touching this would make him sick, because he knew who sent this.

“They ran away. Go back to bed sweetie; you need to rest a little more.”

“I want you to come and...read me a story.”

“Not for now, daddy has to find out who played that trick so they won’t come back.”

“But I want you to read me story!”

“Not now, I’m carrying you back to bed.”

Though she pouted, she let him take her back to her room and fell asleep soon enough. Will checked everywhere in her room and then in the rest of the house to be sure no one was here. After that he picked up his phone and called Jack immediately, thought he didn’t mean to wake him up he didn’t have much of a choice. His boss was definitely in a bad mood when he answered his call, but when he heard what Will told him, he wasn’t long to come.

Will took everything inside, careful to grab those with a paper to avoid putting his fingerprint on it. He checked on Ellie, she had fallen asleep again. The dogs seemed worried, and Will knew they were sensing the danger.

He dressed up and waited for Jack. He was incredibly tired and yet feeling reckless, the exhaustion was probably making him even less able to control his stress and fear. He went twice again in his daughter’s room to check on her, she was sleeping peacefully and he knew it was useless, he had locked every door, but he felt the need to do it nonetheless. When Jack knocked at his door, he opened and didn’t lose any time. Crawford inspected the necklace first and it seemed that Will was right. It was the one Mrs Ditts described, he would have to ask her if it was really hers but it seemed like it was.

“You didn’t see the person who put that on your door?”

“No, I didn’t have time; I just heard poundings and the dogs barking like crazy.”

Then he took the pile of laces and unfolding it, he and Will saw it was a wedding veil. A paper fall as they did so, it was a letter. Jack took it and looked at it suspiciously: it was addressed to Will.

“I’ll have it inspected; there might be a trick with it.”

He looked at the crown made of roses. It was definitely pretty, at the size of child’s head.

“Why the hell did he send you that?”

“That’s not for me. It’s for Ellie, I’m just meant to give those to her.”

“Where is she?”

“Sleeping. It woke her up but she didn’t see this all. I told her it was just someone joking and she went back to bed. Jack, offering presents is something stalkers do.”

“He didn’t stalk anyone until now, didn’t he?”

“How do we know that? Maybe he did stalk the other kids, he didn’t send presents until now but he could be starting to.”

“You don’t have the same profile as the people he killed.”

“Maybe he changed that too! And Ellie has the same profile as the other girls; it’s what matters the most to him Jack, hurting the parents and the siblings isn’t as important as having those girls!”

He looked straight at his boss for once, and the despair Jack saw in his eyes was gut-wrenching.

“I don’t care what he does to me, but I can’t let him touch my daughter.”

“We will do everything that is in our power to protect her, but for now we have to be sure this is our man or not. I’m taking this to the lab, okay? I’ll phone you as soon as I know more. Stay with your daughter in the meantime.”

Will sighed and nodded. It was Sunday; there were no classes today, thank God. He went to his daughter room again and saw she was still sleeping there. The dogs had gathered around her small bed, as if they sensed she was in danger and wished to protect her. He felt a wave of gratefulness toward them, because he knew he could trust them. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep again so instead he opened the file of the case; he had to work on that and catch whoever did this as soon as possible.

Jack was right about one thing, he didn’t fit the profile, he was a single dad. But he wasn’t the one who really mattered…A wedding veil, a crown of white roses, a necklace...This necklace was an old one, he remembered Mrs Ditts saying that. This was what you would offer to a bride...

"Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue, and a silver sixpence inside your shoe."

There wasn’t everything already, the old thing was here, and maybe the crown was the new thing, made with fresh roses. And the veil symbolized purity of the bride. There wasn’t everything yet. The killer intended to send something else. He considered Ellie as his bride...The thought scared the hell out of him. Why was his daughter so special to him, why her? He closed his eyes and made an effort to think, he needed to get into the killers head once more, but first he would have to read the letter, maybe something important was written on it.

He wished he had been able to follow Jack but he couldn’t leave Ellie alone in the house, and he wouldn’t have dared to call Sarah or Ed, not only because it was early but because he didn’t want to put them in danger. He wished to call someone yet, at least to talk to them. Not Alana, she would be too scared for Ellie. Maybe Lecter? He would react more calmly to such news, he was pretty sure of it. But it was early for now, if he had to call Hannibal, it would be later. So instead he focused on the files he had to try to find something that could help.

Time passed and when Ellie woke up again he made breakfast for both of them. She didn’t seem worried or anything, but she was still wondering who tapped at the door.

“Are they gonna come back?”

“I don’t know, but if they do, I’ll make sure they are punished.”

Oh yes, and he would make sure that they would be locked away far from her. He wouldn’t lose her like he lost Abigail Hobbs. After dressing her up and brushing her hair, they went out to play with the dogs. He couldn’t help but look at everything and everyone, scared by an eventual predator around. His head wasn’t really at playing, but he made an effort so she wouldn’t worry. As they were playing together, he suddenly stopped as he saw doctor Lecter who just parked his car walking into his garden.

“Hi Doctor.”

“Good morning Will.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Jack called me and told me what happened,” Hannibal explained and then looked at Ellie who was coming toward him. “Hello, you remember me?”

The little girl smiled and nodded.

“Hannibal! You were at the house of Alana!”

“He is working with daddy,” Will explained her before turning back to Hannibal, “do you want to come inside doctor? I have coffee.”

“That will do.”

They went inside, Will taking his daughter in his arms to bring her back in, feeling more protective than usual. The dogs followed and little Ellie continued to play with them in the living room while the two men were talking in the kitchen.

“You’re not afraid to let her play with the dogs I see.”

“No, animals are good for children and they are careful with one another. As for her clothes…Well, she’ll get dirty anyway.”

“It’s indeed saner for her development; she seems to be gentler than most children of her age with pets.”

“I taught her to be.”

The slight inch of pride in his voice wasn’t missed by Hannibal. Her father looked at the child to make sure she wasn’t hearing them before speaking.

“This morning when someone tapped at my door, she woke up but she thinks someone tricked us. When she went back to sleep, the dogs gathered around her bed as if they wanted to keep her safe. Even they know that she is in danger.”

“They have an instinct. You do as well. I can’t even imagine how scared you are.”

“I am. She is pretty much all I have, since her mother is…Well I already told you about her. I can’t stand to imagine that while she is here all innocent there is some pervert eying her. It sickens me because I can’t do anything about it.”

Hannibal couldn’t help but understand the pain, and he almost wished to reassure Will by saying that with him around, he didn’t have to fear the other predators. When Mischa and he were alone after being orphaned, she was all that was left of his family and he felt like he was her father. Then someone took her away. Will’s pain mirrored what he felt. Yet he knew this could be of use, Graham would be way easier to manipulate and mold if he was panicked.

“You can catch him.”

“What if I fail? What if I fail like with Abigail? I can’t bear that.”

“We learn from our errors. We weren’t able to stop Hobbs from cutting her throat but we can stop that killer from getting your daughter and you.”

“I’m not worried for myself.”

“But I am worried for you and if something happen to you, who will take care of her? You’re everything she has as well.”

“Yes, I know…But I can’t worry about myself. I’m probably gonna need your help. I don’t know why this killer treats her in a particular way.”

“Maybe he doesn’t, maybe it’s about dominance again. He is not treating her in a particular way, he is treating you in a particular way. You’re working with the FBI, you’re not an official agent but you’re still a special agent, someone Crawford specifically asked for. No matter what some people can think, you have a certain kind of authority in your work because your opinion and skills are valued. Threatening you is a way to show his superiority to the FBI. It’s escalation.”

Will wasn’t sure about that, he somehow wished Hannibal was right, he wished he was indeed the real target, but his fear was making this idea seem too beautiful.

“It’s not me who interest him, but Ellie. The girls are still the main factor even if the rest of the family as a part to play.”

“She does fit the profile, but taunting you and the FBI is probably a very seducing idea, that’s why he gives you this particular treatment. Taking both of you will be a special experience and that’s because of your status. Plus the letter wasn’t addressed to her, but to you.”

“She wouldn’t have been able to read it.”

“It doesn’t matter to him, he is either delusional enough to think you’ll read it to her, or he knows you’ll hide everything from her anyway. It was addressed to you because you’re the target. I’ll come with you when they’ll be done inspecting the letter, what we will read might be very instructive. But you know it won’t be easy.”

“Oh yeah…I’ll hate it, I know it. I guess Jack will put us in protective custody when it will be confirmed.”

The idea didn’t really please Will but he had no choice, the more he would have people around to help him protect his daughter, the better it would be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now, here we are, two predators are aiming for Will and Ellie! Review, please!


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